Small PC power supply encasing,
now
contains 80VA transformer and flyback
driver. White disc shaped mini-flyback
is on the right.

Download better better quality schematics for Eagle design-cad (shareware,
www.cadsoft.de).
Includes preliminary PCB-layouts that have been tested and do work, but are
quite bad layouts because no ground plane is used and tracks are a bit thin...
You should do your own PCB routing and proper layout...

Properties: frequency set, duty cycle
set, power adjust, audio interaction and interaction level adjust, and of
course plenty of watts of output power. Requires minimal heatsink or even none
at all. It is best to mount the driver and mains transformer inside an old PC
power supply metal encasing, and use connectors to plug in a TV flyback
externally.Note: At maximum settings the output of the flyback will be very high
power, and is definitely not something to touch as such nor as in a
plasma/lightbulb globe. At low settings, it should be "safer" to use
in plasma globes.Grounding: of the driver metal encasing. As the output is power RF,
the mains ground might not be enough. For use in places where the floor is
covered with plastic, the mains ground should be sufficient. But,
especially on concrete or tile or wooden floor, an additional copper strip
lead to a very large metal object is necessary to prevent zaps. Don't forget
that the mains wall plug must also be grounded - otherwise the
driver case is not properly grounded for low frequencies and you will feel
50Hz, hefty jolts, and get very nasty RF burns when the flyback is running and
you try to touch the case!!

Do not use the driver with car ignition
coils!

Some components here are a bit over-rated
voltage wise... But, on the other hand, even TVs use 1500V transistors to do
the flyback primary switching...

across the connectors is one 160VAC
varistor (VDR i.e. MOV), then follows a diode + resistor + capacitor
snubber network

snubber: around 47nF or 22nF 400VAC
polypropylene, 390 Ohm and at least 5 Watt, and one fast recovery
diode like FR107 or BY229 or ultrafast recovery TV diode like in the
BYW3x series, voltage rating at least 200V.

yes, the diode is the right way round.
The marker stripe points to the +35V rail.

What it does: kills out some of the
voltage spikes caused by the flyback.

Section for the power
supply:

car battery charger transformer, at
least 70VA, with two 12V secondaries (both have to be high-current,
>5A)

two diode rectifier bridges, at least
60V and 10A

a 7812 voltage regulator plus storage
caps (47uF 16V)

on the +35V line, a 100uF elko for
storage and two 100nF polypropylene (FKP1 or MKP1) capacitors for
pulse discharge

the transformer primary i.e. mains
side MUST be fused, and must have an RF filter towards the mains. A
mains switch is also good.

to power a 12VDC brushless motor fan (like
the built-in one of a PC power supply) to cool any components that
might get hot (like the snubbers),, the 7812 has to be extended to
allow more current. See 7812 chip datasheet for how to do this.

What it does: outputs regulated 12VDC for
the drive sections and unregulated 35VDC for the flyback.

Note: normally TV flybacks are
driven from 97VDC and thus the current drawn decreases by 2/3, but, high
voltage spikes increase proportionally, so if you have a 90V transformer
you would have to replace the MOSFETs used here with high voltage
switching transistors plus a base resistor. These transistors are
S2000AFI, BUH315, and others, all rated 1500V and fast-switching.

What it does: input signal is amplified
to about 200 times. The amplified waveform goes to a low-pass style
level-detect circuit. The potentiometer adjusts speed of level decay (lowest
setting => no audio reaction, max setting => frequency goes up
fast and drifts back to the base frequency very slowly).

Section needs a further mic preamplifier to react properly!
Otherwise only knocking on mic will show effects.

(This circuit needs some improvement -
that is, a further preamp with adjustable gain)

This is a slighly newer and improved version of the audio
section. It uses a single LM324 op-amp.

Electret mic capsules are likely not to work with this circuit - use a
standard coil microphone.

The microphone signal is referenced around 1/2*12V=6V, which means that
a negative opamp supply is not needed.

The signal is amplified twice (due to lm324 gain*bandwidth and slewrate
restrictions) with IC1A and IC1B, then buffered in IC1C, and finally
filtered using a single amplifier biquad setup around IC1D.

The "volume" adjustment is a 1kOhm pot. The output is fed into
the pulse width modulator section shown below.

Pulse width
modulator section:

use a large surface ground track/fill
for this circuit, otherwise the LM3524 will not work reliably!

mount the two potentiometers through
the enclosure, as shown in the picture on the start of this page (these
pots are used to control the frequency and duty cycle)

the driver is based on the LM3524 PWM
chip, adaptation to TL494 or some newer chip should be easy (just
compare pin-outs). Equivalents: CA3524, UC3524, SG3524. These are
classic PWM ICs, and should be available just about anywhere, for
cheap.

to keep oscillator noise low and
eliminate errors (those comparators inside LM3524 are sensitive...),
use a large ground plane on the PCB

timing capacitor C1 should
be between 1nF and 22nF, 10nF is a good start. The cap must be
immediately next to the chip, and connect directly to the ground
plane.

it would be a good idea to place a
3-pin switch between the power section 12V out and the 12V input for
this section, together with a two-color LED (red+green) and series
6.8k resistor, to indicate whether this driver section is running or
not - i.e. the flyback is running or not.

the MIC-AMP lead to the BC547B
transistor comes from the audio sense section

I-SENSE is the current sense feedback
signal from the MOSFET section and is only a few 100 millivolts, so
you should use a thin shielded audio cable for signal
interconnection

What this section does: the driver
outputs a square wave just like the 555 timer chip. The maximum
frequency is 300kHz as given in IC specs. The BC547B transistor pulls
down more current from pin 6 (="timing resistor") according to
the audio sense section output signal, and thus can increase the
frequency. The I-SENSE signal changes the output square wave pulse width
and reduces it as MOSFET drain current increases, so it protects against
overcurrent and short-circuit failure. The maximum for peak currents can
be set in the current sense / mosfet section.

the varistor is rated 120VAC and
protects the MOSFET against destructive drain<->source
overvoltages. Note that the mosfet must be rated at least 200V for
the varistor to have any protection effect!

MOSFET: this could be two IRF740
mosfets in parallel (each 500V and 10A, less than 1 Ohm R_ds_on),
IRF460 (500V 20A) or some other 10A >200V mosfet.

using a heatsink for the mosfet(s) is
adviseable - it doesn't have to be very large, though

the current sense resistor (0.05 Ohm)
should be low inductance type, not wire-wound. Otherwise you'll end
up with inductive, "false" voltage spikes on the current
sense signal.

the trimmer next to the current sense
resistor is really intended to be a trimmer, on the circuit board,
i.e. not a potentiometer for free user adjustment! Maybe 10kOhm.
With the trimmer, the overcurrent triggering point can be cranked up
higher than 5A. Just be careful not to kill the mosfets on
overcurrent=>overheating.

Keep all connections on the +35V/flyback
side as short as possible and use broad copper traces!! A large
ground plane / ground copper fill is essential! (see halfbridge
pages to get the idea)

Don't place any of the +12V gate drive
side components inside the area of the +35V & large current side!
Keep the leads to the mosfet(s) short! The ground in the schematic
should go via a broad copper strip/braid to the metal encasing of the
driver box (remember the metal casing also connects to the power supply
section).

What it does: the totem pole circuit
enables faster turn-on and turn-off by being able to source and
sink 1A from the mosfet gate capacitance, so the mosfet is switched is
faster and switching losses are much lower. The zener diode keeps the
mosfet gate from frying and blocks reverse voltages.